Sorted!

Well I have solved the problem. We are going to run our classes once a month and have a coffee morning once a month so that in effect we will all get together twice in the month. I will organise one project per month and we will be open to guests. Students who just want to attend for that one session.(So you would be very welcome Susan) Works for me!
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I have 100 metres of fabric to dye and I have lots of ideas for colour runs,value runs and one of a kinds. There will be competition if the weather is good between dyeing and working in the garden. I am wanting to do some batik pieces so perhaps I could actually dye in the garden! More room and less mess!

New Blog

I have started another blog. As if I need another blog! The link can be found in the sidebar. I wanted a blog where I could post inspirational pictures. These will be of things and scenes which motivate me to create and I will add a few bon mots as to what it is about the picture that gets the juices flowing. Sometimes I will follow up with actual work that has resulted from the picture.

In a quandary!

I don't know what to do. We are coming to the end of this term's classes and there is going to be a shortage of students for the summer term. In fact we will barely make the room hire money which means I will be teaching for next to nothing. Do I do this as a labour of love because there is every possibility that it will pick up for the winter term or do I call it a day and stop teaching? I can always advertise again for the winter sessions. I do enjoy teaching but do I really want all the work of planning classes for very little in return. There is a core element of students whom I really don't want to let down but on the other hand I could be using my time more productively. I really don't know what to do. The summer is always a difficult time because people go on holiday, have gardens to tend and just like to be free to do what ever and not tied down to a class. I can understand this! I suppose in the back of my mind is the fear that if I get off the track I won't be able to get back on. Should I perhaps just run one class a month for the next six months and see how this goes? Make it more of a group than a class? I shall have to discuss it with those students who are keen to continue but I don't know what to offer them for the best. These things are sent to try us and they do. Not forgetting that I actually sell a fair amount of fabric at class! Always an important point to remember! Though with less students and a recession that too could go down. I need help and advice!

This and that!

These are a few of the kaleidoscope blocks done in class last week. Heather had a very large repeat (top row)and we had to move the fabric around a lot but we got there in the end and these lovely patterns were the result. This is a superb block to do as each pattern is subtly different. The difference between the pansy material and the japanese fish material is decidedly marked though both are attractive. The ooh's and aah's as the patterns were laid out were most gratifying. One of my favourite classes to do!



This week we made a crazy patchwork armchair tidy. This is my sample for the class. It is a very simple pattern and once the crazy patchwork is done quick to make up. I used silk on the top side but a linen underneath so that it wouldn't slip.




Next week we are making journals. The one below is covered with fabric and is A4 size with corners in the same fabric as the spine.




This is the fly leaf of another one which was covered with hand-made paper bought at Paper Chase - one of my favourite shops! The fly leaf is a piece of onion paper that I made myself. I haven't made paper for quite a while but stocks are getting low so perhaps I'll have a paper making day this summer.



My son is coming down from Scotland tomorrow for a few days so I won't be posting for a while. We don't get to see him that often due to the distance, so I am really looking forward to this visit.

How Time Flies!

A month has gone by since I last wrote anything. It has gone so quickly but then February is a short month. My daughter and the two grandchildren, Fenella and Fred, were down for nearly three weeks and that made time speed by.This is a photo of them building a mousetrap in the garden. I don't think the mice need to worry just yet!

Fenella had a camera for the sixth birthday in January and is an avid picture taker! Suddenly she is becoming very grown up.


One day we went to Newquay Zoo and I loved the shell on this tortoise.The markings on it were exquisite.


Then I had a workshop to do for a local quilting group and that needed work preparing for it plus my regular Friday morning classes which need a new sample every week. Considering I also work in the afternoons I am kept quite busy.
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At the moment I am making a kaleidoscope quilt which is not growing very quickly and this weekend I hope to make a selection of hand-made journals. I love doing this and will take pictures of the process. Hopefully I will make a dent in the pile of hand-made paper I have stored up and free up some room.I will also make some fabric covered ones using some of my hand-dyed fabric. I have finally found a new supplier. For those who are interested I am getting my fabric from Whaleys. I couldn't find a cheaper supplier and get the quality. This is working out well though.


I dyed some wool last weekend which will be useful for decorating the covers and fastening the covers together. The picture above is an old one but the wool I dyed is exactly the same. I love these colours. I also did some deep ruby reds and dark blues. The wool is a rough spun fibre with lumpy bits in it. Lovely for decorative work. I have some more in hanks which I will dye up soon as I don't think what I have done will last for long! I also have a fleece living in the boot of my car which needs carding and then dyeing so that I can make some felt. It has been there for a few years now and really needs to see the light of day! It is there, along with some sacking and various plastic pots and a portable ironing board, two irons, a folding chair, an umbrella and a roll of cardboard. It is as good as having another cupboard! There is just room for my sewing machine when I go to class! One day I must give it a good clear out and see just what I have there. I think I've even got some wadding and embroidery threads. It's no wonder I have a job finding the spray can of de-icer when it's frosty!!

Snow!

This was taken last night. There was a really bright moon and it all looked quite ethereal! For some reason it reminded me of a Thomas Kincaid picture! It is quite cold now and beginning to freeze. I'm glad I'm home in front of a roaring fire; and glad I've been to Asda and bought enough food for a siege! Now will I have enough books from the library to keep me going? Well I can always fall back on Sudoko if I'm stuck. It's too cold to go and sew as I am too mean to run the central heating all the time! But I could knit! Now there's a thought!

Aaaaaagh!

Eventually I got around to trying to copy the Husqvarna instruction video and wasn't that a big mistake! Now this is a twenty plus year old VHS tape I am trying to copy and I haven't viewed it in at least fourteen years! It was fuzzy! Well actually that is an understatement! It was completely unviewable save for the first chapter on setting up the machine. If I don't know how to set the machine up after twenty odd years then I am more of an idiot than I imagined! So it was a wasted effort and what was worse it completely wrecked my Mum's recorder. Which we didn't realise until she came to record one of her weekly programs. She was not happy! However my husband rode to the rescue and the machine is now all hunky dory and working well but it has put me off trying any more videos for the time being. I'm really sad about my Husqvarna video as it had some good motivational stuff on it using pictograms as well as the basic instructions. Ah well - win some, lose some!

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No pictures as I'm at work typing this. I had to walk in as we had four inches of snow last night and there was no way my car was going to make it up the hill. Very slippy under foot too! I'm doing an early shift so as to get home before everything starts icing up again. For those international readers of this blog I have to tell you that Britain comes to a full stop when it snows. Trains, planes and buses don't run; schools close and lots of people can't get into work because of the general chaos! Not like Canada or Norway where life goes on as normal regardless of weather conditions. I can remember when I was first married and living in Devon, where we would get a lot of snow, that we always kept chains to put on the car but I think this preparedness was due to the fact that Martin had lived in Norway for a year where his only mode of transport was across country by ski! Now I am a total wimp and only go out in ice and snow if I absolutely have to! I'm wondering if my daughter and grandchildren will be able to make it down here on Thursday from London. They have had it really bad in the South East. I have taken photos so perhaps I'll be able to post some tomorrow. Falmouth rarely gets masses of snow as it is on the coast and fairly protected. I remember one year in the sixties when I was living in Kent that the whole country was snowed up save for Falmouth! Mind you those living in Falmouth were completely marooned! So really it isn't that bad though I have yet to walk home!

More fruit blocks

Danielle wanted to see more of the fruit blocks so here are three of them done on silk and made into cushions. The top picture is one of cherries which I did for my niece and the bottom two are of pears and apples which I did for my sister, again on silk. I also have these patterns done on the turquoise cotton to form part of the wall hanging I'm doing. As well as these fruits I've also done lemons, oranges, plums, gooseberries, grapes and strawberries. I hope never ever again to have to do piping in silk as it did my head in being so slippery! And also because I covered the piping cord in wadding so that it wouldn't show the twist and this made it harder to control as well. So no more piped cushions! At least not until I've forgotten my angst over them.

Thank you Sue and Debs for your kind comments. They were much appreciated as were Danielle's. Occasionally I get these attacks of the dismals and this must have been one of those days. On the whole I'm quite happy to send into the unknown and make no contact! Is there life on Mars? Probably not!
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At the moment I am faced with tidying up my workroom and hiding up my bits and pieces in the spare room as my daughter and children will be visiting at the beginning of February. I am looking forward to this and it is a good incentive for looking at the clutter and sorting it out. My biggest problem is room and I know that once things are put out of sight they go completely out of mind! The next big project is to make journals so I shall have to look out all the stuff I need and have it handy. At least this will use up a considerable amount of saved 'I'm sure this will come in useful' stuff! You all know exactly what I mean!
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Well I must now actually go and do something. I have only ten pages more to finish my book and it is going to be hard to actually do something until I've read it but I'll try! I'm feeling really good as I managed to copy a VHS video onto DVD last night and it worked! This evening I'm going to try putting my Husqvarna instructions onto DVD. As I don't have TV or a video player this is a real break through for me. I knew giving my mum a new digital recorder a couple of Christmas's ago would come in useful. Why has it taken me so long to actually do it!

Fruit blocks

This is the last one of the fruit appliqué blocks I'm doing. There are nine in all plus the strawberry border. The picture above is of the block before it's been stitched. I used fabric pens to colour and add to the leaves and grapes. The tendrils of the vine are coloured in with pencil and I will overstitch with straight stitch.This is one of my favourite blocks; the others that I like particularly being oranges and plums. Eventually I will turn them all into a wall hanging. I have had great fun doing these and will feel a gap when they are finally finished.
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I am doing some lessons on designing over the next few weeks and will start off dealing with colour and line. I am looking forward to these lessons and will stress the importance of proportion as it is so easy to have a good idea and yet never have it reach it's best because of poor proportion of elements in the design. I shall spend the next week of two making samples to underline what I am saying and I'm looking forward to this. I'm thinking of running a series of work as I go on the blog as it would be a good record of what I have done to look at in years to come. It is amazing to think that I have been blogging since early May 2005. I have lost the first few posts that I made as I changed my format and didn't realise that this would lose what I had written to date. But even going back to the first post that remains on the blog it is still very interesting and informative. I have to say that I was more involved in the beginning than I am now. Sometimes I have to make myself write and I know that my interest in blogging isn't as great as it was. I have to ask myself - do I blog for myself or to be read by others? The lack of comments makes blogging for others more of a chore so I suppose really I blog for myself. The fact that over 56,000 hits have been recorded means somebody somewhere is reading it but isn't sufficiently interested to comment; either positively or negatively. And I notice that lots of blogs that I read in the early days have bitten the dust and are long gone. I wonder if they felt the same! It's a bit like putting a letter in a bottle and casting it out to sea. Wondering if anyone will find it and reply!

Where is the year going?

Already thirteen days of this month have gone! The New Year isn't new any longer. Where has all this time slipped away to? I didn't make any resolutions this year; new or otherwise. I try hard but I never keep them! So this year I'm just going to continue as before but with more effort.

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This year I am going to make more effort to achieve my original plans rather than making do with what is easiest. This is one of my besetting sins that I can be happy with something that isn't what I actually wanted. With regard to life this is probably a blessing but when it comes to my textile work it means that I am never getting the most out of my endeavours. But all that is going to change. I'm going to set myself challenges and then I'm going to follow through to the bitter end. However long it takes! This isn't a resolution it's an extension!

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So far this year I have managed to finish several UFO's which has cleared the decks and I am well into another UFO at the moment. Soon they will all be finished and it is amazing how uncluttered my mind is becoming as my workroom clears of piles of unfinished stuff. I tried clearing out some of my cupboards but found I just couldn't bring myself to re-home(sell, give or throw) anything. It has got to the stage where most of my stuff, cluttered or not, is now useable. If not now then definitely useable in the future. I do have to decide as to what direction I want to go in and only keep stuff relevant to that. Maybe a few things that don't fit any category but not box loads.

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And I am setting aside time for thinking! Quiet periods for reflection will enable me to plan my time better and work out ideas so that they can be excuted in the best possible way. As well it will allow me to dream! Dreams mean designs so can't be bad!

All over for another year!

This is my Mum enjoying Boxing Day lunch with us and a couple of friends. It's amazing to think she will be 90 this coming year! It was a lovely relaxed affair after the rush of Christmas Day! Even with just me, Martin and Mum, Christmas Day seemed very fraught though lovely. In fact this Christmas has been one of the best for me. I was spoilt rotten and had a great time. As I hope did everyone else at our house!


On Christmas Day we had a chicken, leek and cheese sauce pie which I decorated with the words 'Happy Christmas'. It was delicious (I don't suffer from false modesty!) and was so easy to do compared with turkey and all the trimmings and to follow the main course we had Christmas pudding which I'm afraid I bought this year and trifle. The best trifle I've ever made for some reason. Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without the trifle! So all in all a fantastic two days.


I tried to show the brandy alight in this picture but it just didn't take. But the pudding was delicious. In fact I don't think I have ever been successful in taking a picture of a flaming pudding!


This is one of the fruit appliqués that I have been doing. Just so you know it is a stem with gooseberries. The sweet dessert kind! I used 'twinkle' over the green to show the undersides of the leaves and it worked really well. I have really had fun doing these and have another two or three still to do to complete the set. I'm thinking of doing blackberries and perhaps melons or bananas.
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Today I went into Falmouth with my friend Sue and we had a great time at the Marks and Spencer's sale. I was able to find several things to augment my wardrobe. It was sad going into Woolworth's for the last time. Our branch closes on Tuesday. The end of an era. When I was a child I used to buy printed table linens and embroidery silks and embroider items for the great aunts and the grandparents! Ah those were the days. All my presents for ten bob! Amazing! I can only have been about six or seven but some of the embroideries were quite complicated I remember. Do children still embroider at that age? Anyway today I was able to buy six screwdrivers for a £1 and two candles in glass containers for another £1. Still good value! A pity it couldn't make it's centenary!

Happy Christmas!

I want to wish everyone a very Happy Christmas and a Prosperous and Peaceful New Year. I hope you all have the best of times and that your lives unfold in the New Year in the way that you want them to!
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Thank you to all who have left kind and inspiring comments on my blog. They have always made me feel good! I hope that reading the blog has been as much fun for you as it has been for me writing it. Next year I'll try to write more regularly and share more of my projects. Until then let the merriment commence! (I'm already ahead on the chocolate!)

Time Wasting!

I saw this on Lisa Call's blog and thought it looked fun. Another way to waste time and put off doing anything serious!

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied - doesn't take money for this to happen so Yes
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelos David
41. Sung karoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favourite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury!
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a lawsuit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day

Christmas lunch!

Today we had our work Christmas lunch at the Falmouth Hotel. This was Falmouth's first hotel and was built in 1863. "In 1850, the Post Office Station at Falmouth had closed down and the loss of a substantial source of trade and income had an adverse effect on the life of the town. Facing a bleak future, local businessmen set about exploring new avenues to restore prosperity. With Falmouth's magnificent harbour and its geographical position as the first port in the kingdom, they decided to form a company to build and operate a dockyard complex. Together with other influential people they had already created the Cornwall Railway Company and were building a line that would eventually link up with the Great Western Railway at Plymouth and thus the national network. They formed yet another company to build a large hotel. On August 6 1863, the foundation stone of The Falmouth Hotel was laid by Robert Tweedy, the first Chairman of The Falmouth Hotel Company Limited. Twenty-one months later, he was joined by 70 distinguished guests at a grand dinner to celebrate the opening of Falmouth's very first hotel."
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History is fascinating! I remember as a child that the railway line ran straight through from Paddington, London to Falmouth and it was exciting to come down by train in those days. Now the line stops at Truro and one has to change to a small branch line. Thank you Dr Beeching!
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It is still an imposing hotel and the ballroom where we had our meal was festively decorated. We had our works do here last year as well because it is one of the few places that has a room large enough to accommodate us all!

The food was good and I was pleased with my choices. I started with a prawn concoction which was delicious.


Followed by a typical Christmas main course of turkey with all the trimmings. The roast potatoes were superb! Between the starter and the main course we had a small pot of gooseberry sorbet which was lovely. I could have eaten a lot more of it! I did think that it would have been better between the main course and the dessert to refresh the palate but it was good anyway.


And the dessert was so much better than it looked. It was raspberry cream brulee with a shortbread biscuit and it was out of this world wonderful. Very creamy! I didn't eat the fruit garnish as eating one of these while holidaying in Bath I spent the rest of my holiday getting to know all the loos intimately! I was sooooo sick! So it has put me off these fruits for ever!



It was a very grey day and I think we are probably in for some high winds as there were a number of boats sheltering in the bay including a small tug which was all lit up like a Christmas tree. (the boat to the left in the picture)


All in all a lovely outing and great fun with lots of laughs! I actually one a prize in the raffle. I don't think I have ever won a prize before in a raffle so this was a first!
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There are no pictures of quilty stuff as everything I've been doing has been for presents but after Christmas I will put some pictures up. I have finished everything and it has all been wrapped and posted. I am feeling very virtuous and after the manic activity of the past few weeks it's a real anti-climax but at least I can now read some books. I had ten books out of the library and it was a real effort not to read them! But I restrained myself and got stuck in to the sewing! I'm good at working under pressure and I managed to stick to the time-table lists of things to do exactly which was very pleasing. It's always good to be able to tick things off. Such a sense of achievement!

Quilty Christmas Dinner

Last night my quilting class and I went for our Christmas dinner at the Norway Inn in Falmouth. This is a very old inn (around 350 years old) on the banks of what was once a very busy river but is now a slow, silted up back water. The food was delicious and a great time was had by all.


This was my choice. Salmon in a filo pastry parcel which was delicious, with a parsley sauce and selection of vegetables. I am not a sprout person so there is a decided absence of green on this plate. And I thought the white puddingy stuff in a bowl was bread sauce which I adore but it turned out to be horseradish sauce. Hot! But interesting with salmon!

Dessert was a raspberry gateaux. Very light and sinful! But tasty! The other choices were chocolate cheese cake or lemon mousse. I was tempted by the lemon mousse and to my disappointment no one else ordered it so I couldn't see what I'd missed. Perhaps this was just as well. All in all it was a very good evening and a lot of fun was had by all. I had prepared small gifts for the two ladies who supply us with tea or coffee and biscuits on a Friday morning. This is a real treat. We never had this in Adult Education. It was coffee from the machine in a styrofoam cup and tasted vile! So very deserving of recognition! And then to my surprise I got a card signed by all and a voucher for Creative Grids. I shall go mad after Christmas choosing stuff! You can never have too much. They are a lovely bunch of students and they are all coming back next term!
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Next Friday is our last class before Christmas and the last of my fabric! I have not had a lot of joy in finding a new supplier yet. Anne Wigfull of the blog Grains in the Wind gave me the name of a supplier (JMM Marketing 01428 717357) and they had some nice cotton which I am test dyeing today but no poplin. They are hoping to get some for me but not until after Christmas. Nothing as cheap as I was getting! The cotton looks nice but is thicker than my previous fabric and I'm not certain it is mercerised.Oh to be in the States where they have access to wonderful cottons. Their Pima cotton is superb.

The End of the World

Well it really does seem like the end of the world. I went to order more fabric for dyeing today and found that my supplier has given up trading! And I have no idea where the fabric came from originally. I know he used to go and pick it up for me so it can't have been too far away but I'm here in Cornwall and he was up there in Colne or there abouts. I am gutted as it was such lovely cotton poplin, 60 inches wide, mercerised and cheap! The nearest I can find is twice as expensive! Oh woe is me! If anyone can give me the address of a good supplier of fabric for dyeing then I shall be eternally in their debt. I know about Whaleys and will probably end up using them if I don't find anyone else. Wolfin textiles are good also but again more expensive.

This is a picture to cheer myself up! It is of my Christmas Cactus which sits on our bathroom windowsill. It is an absolute picture and matches the paint on the walls. The leaves have such interesting colour variations too.

Little Boxes

These little boxes are so easy and quick to make. Each box takes a square of fabric bondawebbed to paper. An eight and a half inch square makes a 3" box. The size to cut for the lid is always 1/4" larger than the base. The little box above was made from 5.5 and 5.75 inch squares. Start by marking the centre by folding the sides together. Then fold each corner into the centre as shown in the diagram below.


When all the corners have been folded into the middle fold each corner up again to the crease mark already formed as shown in the picture below.


Now open up the square and cut as shown below stopping at the centre square. Only cut on one set of opposite corners.


Now fold the corner in and then fold it again. Make sure that each fold is creased well. Do this on the two sides that weren't cut.


Unfold this second fold to the first fold and crease back the edges on each side as shown in the picture below. Then fold these 'flaps' in towards each other.

Now fold the end over and crease the tip flat onto the base of the box. A dab of glue can be put under this flap to hold it in place or a square of plain paper can be placed onto the bottom of the box and glued to hold all the flaps down and make it look neat.


Here are a few of the boxes I've made and decorated. To make a box once the paper and fabric have been bonded takes about 10 minutes. To decorate can take longer as one can get carried away! I hope you have fun!

This year's table runner!

One year I made 13 of these table runners as Christmas presents for various friends and family. They were quick (fairly!) and easy to do and very effective when finished. The one I kept for myself was going to be blue but because my sister changed her colour scheme at the last minute I ended up with a very elegant one in grey and black with lovely pinky red flowers. However this wasn't Christmassy enough to use as a sample for my recent workshop so I made another one. In fact I made two! The one you see above plus one in Christmas fabrics in green and red. The one above is a piece of a Japanese cotton print with sand and rust strips in silk dupion. They catch the light beautifully and look different depending on where they are viewed from. I hadn't made this version of a table runner for a couple of years so brought it out of retirement. I'm glad I did as I've now ended up with one that goes with my colour scheme! There is a silver lining to everything I find.
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I have become addicted to free machine applique. I spent the whole of yesterday evening machining my lemon block and got quite carried away. My Bernina 180 is a joy to sew with and even manages to work with some of the odd embroidery silks that I have bought in the market which come from the far east somewhere. These threads are in lovely colours but not known for their ease of sewing being liable to fray at the drop of a hat. I find if I use a metallic or top stitch needle they behave themselves.
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My copy of The Quilting Arts Book arrived last week and it is a wonderful book full of great ideas and techniques. Just the kind of book to sit in front of the fire dipping into and being inspired. Also I had a book on quick makes taken from the Threads magazine. I have always enjoyed the page in the magazine where they showed a quick make and this book has collected many of these together. One that quickly caught my eye was the pattern for a small origami fabric box. So quick to do. I cut out a square of paper and practised in front of the fire while having coffee with Martin and my mum this afternoon and it took all of five minutes! Cool! Obviously this was very basic but once one has bondawebbed some fabric to paper and done some embellishing on the fabric it wouldn't take much longer to create the real thing. And then embellishing the lid would be fun too! The one I did made a 3" box but I shall try other sizes. Pictures when they are done but don't hold your breath as I won't have any time for a few days. And instead of fabric one could bondaweb hand-made paper to a backing instead. Oh the possibilities are endless!

A Prickly Visitor!

Now that it is dark when I come home from work I am not really aware of anything other than putting my key in the front door. I did wonder why someone had left a brush on my step but something made me look more closely and I saw I had a prickly visitor. Usually we have hedgehogs in the back garden and it was quite unusual to see one at the front. I wanted to take him/her round to the back in case of him/her being run over on the road but Martin said that I might be taking him/her away from it's loved ones who might not be in the back garden. This made me feel so sad that I left the little hedgehog where it was and hoped it would be sensible and not wander off to the road. As I didn't see a squashed hedgehog this morning I am assuming that he/she knew where he/she was going! I hoped to get a better photo but I rather felt that if I went up close the hedgehog might roll up into a ball.
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There are now only about 6 weeks to Christmas and I have at least nine cushions to make and three sets of table mats. Some of these have been started but the faux chenille cushions are still just a thought. First I have to dye some mandela fabric in the right colours and then make the faux chenille squares. It is amazing how long it actually takes to cut the fabric and then wash it and all this before actually making the cushion! So I am going to be very busy especially as I am also working on the fruit applique blocks for class on Fridays. No more reading of books for a while! But I do now have a CD player in my workroom so I could listen to books on disk. What a good idea!

Christmas is over at last!

I feel as if I've been running a marathon. For the last few weeks I've been making Christmassy things as if there were no tomorrow. But today I ran my Christmas workshop which was great fun and I can now relax. As well as the tree decorations shown above I also did table runners, cards, gift boxes,sachets and star hangings. There was something for everyone. The most popular item was the gift box which I had done in several sizes. Also the yo-yo tree decorations. I had sprayed some branches in silver and used those to show case the various items. Why is it that good branches arn't around when one wants them! Now I can relax and get back to the ordinary stuff. But first a grand clear up! And I have to say that my new SewEzi sewing table came into it's own as I was so cramped for space I was able to set it up and use if for cutting out on. Brilliant!

Dyeing Fun!

I had a great afternoon yesterday doing some dyeing. I have to dye nearly every week to keep up with demand and ensure that I have a good supply of fabric at all times. Yesterday I decided to experiment. It was pretty cold but I mixed my soda ash with quite hot water so that the fabric was warm when it went into the dye and I mixed the dyes with a warm salt mix. So warmth all around except in the air!


This piece crumpled and folded and I just dripped the dyes on indiscrimately. I am very pleased with the results which would be good on a piece of faux chenille.


Another randomly dripped piece but what isn't so easy to see is that I sat the fabric on a piece of plastic mesh and the mesh marks are visible if one looks closely. I want to do more with this technique and see what other marks I can make the dye show.


This piece was truly experimental in that I sprinkled the dye powder directly onto soda ash soaked scrumpled fabric. I was a tad heavy handed but I like the effect very much. I shall do this again and try it especially with black and brown dyes which have so many colours in them.




I was truly experimental here as I sprayed soda ash soaked scrumpled fabric with aluminium car spray paint to see what happened. Then I spooned two blues over the fabric which pooled in the hollows and ran off the aluminium. When I came to rinse it out after curing the aluminium stayed fast so I was quite excited to see what would come out of the washing machine. I wash my fabric on a 60 degree wash with extra rinses so it is quite hot and takes nearly two hours. Sadly the heat did for the aluminium and it all washed out - wouldn't have done if it had been on a bit of clothing! However the result is lovely and I will try using aluminium spray paint again as a resist with a bit more planning!


This was another multi-coloured dye piece with a mixture of pleating and scrumpling. As is the piece below which has a look of feathers about it.


This piece was very successful in that I wanted to portray rocks and rocks is what I've got. However can I do it again?


And this last piece was using up left over dyes without any thought as to colour mixing. They were just thrown on as I emptied the jars. The colours I was using were mustard, turquoise, slate blue, tarton green and violet. I also had a Christmas red on the go made from cerise and orange but I don't think any of that went into this mix.

All in all I was pleased with my results and it will be hard to let them all go. I shall want to squirrel a couple away for my own use.